BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.10.5// X-WR-CALNAME:www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco X-WR-CALDESC:www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco X-WR-TIMEZONE:US/Pacific BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20130524T061309CEST-5513mV8CbX@www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco DTSTAMP:20130524T040509Z DESCRIPTION:\nBand Lineup:\nLonnie Liston Smith \; -- \; Keyboards Brian Jackson \; -- \; Keyboards\nMark Adams \; -- \; Keyb oards \; \nWilliam "\;Bill"\; White \; -- \; Guitar\nT revor Allen \; -- \; Bass\nLee Pearson \; -- \; Drums\nLik e most jazz artists\, keyboardist Mark Adams is a creature of the night &n dash\; an artist who hits his creative stride in the late hours\, when oth er soulful cats just like him emerge from the shadows and fill the night a ir with a groove that is sometimes lyrical\, sometimes edgy and always com pelling.\n\nThis year\, Adams and veteran keyboardists Brian Jackson and L onnie Liston Smith continue their sweep of the jazz landscape on the &ldqu o\;Soulful Night of Keys&rdquo\; tour &ndash\; a trip that started in the U.S. in the fall of 2011 and headed for Europe in July 2012. The tour show cases a combined legacy of ten decades of talent from three of the most en during names in contemporary jazz. A live CD and DVD\, both recorded in Ne w York City\, have been released in conjunction with the tour.\n\n&ldquo\; There&rsquo\;s a camaraderie about this tour that&rsquo\;s reminiscent of the heyday of jazz &ndash\; back when it was commonplace for guys like Cha rlie Parker and Sonny Stitt to play together\, and Bud Powell was best fri ends with Thelonius Monk\,&rdquo\; says Adams. &ldquo\;They were never in competition with each other. That cooperative\, creative spirit of jazz is what we&rsquo\;ve recaptured on this tour. We just get up there and play together\, without trying to see which of us can be faster or slicker than the other. We just play what we feel and we do our best to be true to the music.&rdquo\;\n\nAdams\, the youngest representative on a tour that span s three generations of piano jazz\, has been playing it like he feels it f or more than a decade. Since the 1990s\, the Baltimore native has establis hed a career as not only a composer and performer\, but also a music profe ssor at City University of New York (CUNY) and the author of numerous book s on music theory. He made his recording debut with the 2001 release of As ceticism\, and followed up with Feel the Groove (2007) and Something&rsquo \;s Going On (2009). Embellishments (The Q&\;A Project) was a collabora tive effort with fellow pianist and CUNY professor Jonathan Quash released in April 2011. Along the way\, Adams has performed with a diverse roster of high-profile artists: Roy Ayers\, Ron Carter\, Ronnie Laws\, Hugh Masek ela\, Erykah Badu and Wayne Henderson.\n\nThe idea for the &ldquo\;Soulful Night of Keys&rdquo\; tour originally took shape in the spring of 2011\, when Adams and Jackson &ndash\; both on the Roberts Music Group label &nda sh\; played together at a party for label executive Barry Roberts\, says A dams. Backed by Adams&rsquo\; band\, the collaborative performance featuri ng the two keyboardists was a huge hit\, and the idea of taking the show o n the road was the next logical step.\n\nAdams picked a well-seasoned part ner for the venture\, as Jackson&rsquo\;s reputation as a jazz innovator s pans more than four decades. Widely regarded as one of the primary archite cts of new-soul movement\, he produced nearly 100 tracks with partner and co-writer Gil Scott Heron throughout the 1970s that are some of the most s ampled works in hip-hop history. The fact that artists like Kanye West\, C ommon and Pete Rock have frequently sampled Jackson&rsquo\;s sound as a ba sis for their own speaks volumes about how far ahead of its time Jackson&r squo\;s musical vision has been and continues to be. Aside from the ten to p-selling albums in his own discography\, Jackson has also collaborated on stage and in studio with Kool and the Gang\, Phyllis Hyman\, George Benso n and Roy Ayers. His producer credits include work with Gwen Guthrie and W ill Downing.\n\nTogether\, Adams and Jackson enlisted the services of a ve rsatile and enduring jazz innovator to round out the trio. Lonnie Liston S mith&rsquo\;s pedigree dates back to the early 1960s\, when he launched hi s career by backing such luminary vocalists as Betty Carter and Joe Willia ms\, and quickly segued to gigs with Art Blakey\, Max Roach and Rahsaan Ro land Kirk. His later collaborations included work with Pharaoh Sanders &nd ash\; with whom he began to experiment with electric keyboards and the vas t palette of cosmic sounds they could create &ndash\; and Argentinean saxo phonist Gato Barbieri. Smith joined Miles Davis&rsquo\; ensemble in 1972\, and recorded two albums with the group &ndash\; On the Corner and Big Fun &ndash\; before launching a solo recording career in the mid-1970s as lea der of a band dubbed The Cosmic Echoes. One of his earliest solo outings\, Expansions (1975)\, helped fuel the jazz fusion movement by combining sol id jazz playing with elements from other genres. An ambitious combination of recording and touring over the next two decades &ndash\; as well as col laborative work with Mary J. Blige\, Jay-Z and other emerging rap and pop artists in the &lsquo\;90s &ndash\; have established him as a continuing f orce to be reckoned with well into the 21st century.\n\n&ldquo\;Lonnie cam e to mind for this tour\, and Brian agreed that he&rsquo\;d be a great add ition to the team\,&rdquo\; says Adams. &ldquo\;I admit that I was hesitan t to ask him\, because I didn&rsquo\;t think he&rsquo\;d be interested. Bu t I just gathered up the courage and called him anyway. At first he said\, &lsquo\;Three keyboards? How is that going to work?&rsquo\; But eventuall y he said\, &lsquo\;Okay\, let&rsquo\;s give it a try.&rsquo\; Our first s how sold out\, and from that point on\, both Lonnie and Brian were sold. S ince then\, this thing has taken on a life of its own. It has snowballed i nto something that has taken us across the country and will take us to Eng land\, France\, Italy\, Germany and Holland this summer.&rdquo\;\n\nThe th ree keyboard players are joined on the tour by a solid and versatile backu p crew: guitarist/vocalist/musical director Bill White (Chaka Khan\, Taylo r Dane)\; bassist Trevor Allen (Freddie Jackson)\; and drummer Lee Pierson (Spyro Gyra). Saxophonist Carl Bartlett Jr. has also made intermittent ap pearances on the tour as well.\n\nThe &ldquo\;Soulful Night of Keys&rdquo\ ; tour distills some of the best piano jazz of the past half century\, cra fted by three generations of top-shelf artists. Adams would like the shows to take audiences to a place that&rsquo\;s devoid of the challenges and s tresses of the world we all know too well. &ldquo\;I want people to leave these shows having experienced a total release\,&rdquo\; he says. &ldquo\; I want them to just let their minds go and not worry about whatever proble ms they may be facing\, not worry about what they have to do tomorrow or t he next day. I want them to just be in the moment and be entertained.&rdqu o\;\nMark Adams' website DTSTART:20121101T200000 DTEND:20121102T220000 DURATION:PT3H LOCATION:San Francisco SUMMARY:A SOULFUL NIGHT OF KEYS with Lonnie Liston Smith\, Mark Adams and B rian Jackson - Live CD Recording END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR